Sense of Red
by Higuchimon
Summary: Osiris Red is many things to many people. Sound and scent, touch and taste, so much more than sight.
**Disclaimer:** I own nothing involved in this story unless I invented it myself. This is written for fun, not for profit. All forms of feedback eagerly accepted. Concrit is loved the most, but everything is welcome.
 **Fandom:** Yu-Gi-Oh GX  
 **Title:** Sense of Red  
 **Character:** Juudai  
 **Word Count:** 1,000|| **Status:** One-shot  
 **Genre:** General|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenge:** Written for the Diversity Writing Challenge, B20, write a fic centered on one character's view on something or some place; Valentine's Day to White Day Advent 2016, day #4, pick a challenge prompt you've already done and do it again (GX Non-Flash, prompt #102, Osiris Red Dorms); Easter Egg Basket Advent, day #28, write a fic without using any visual descriptors  
 **Summary:** Osiris Red is many things to many people. Sound and scent, touch and taste, so much more than sight.

* * *

Osiris Red meant different things to everyone who crossed its doorway. To some it meant freedom, to others it was a prison.

To Juudai it was the place he'd spent some of the best three years of his life. He knew there would be better years, but the three he'd spent there held a special place in his heart and always would.

To Juudai, Osiris Red was a narrow bed that he spread out on and wrapped himself around a pillow and didn't care if he wore his uniform or his pajamas. It was a set of sheets that folded around him gently and a scratchy blanket he wouldn't change for anything.

Osiris Red was the smell of the sea and the sound of the ocean, that he'd never smelled or heard until coming here, but deep in the most recessed parts of himself, he knew them anyway. Sometimes he'd imagined the feel of water-slick rock underneath his knees and a set of arms around him that weren't quite human, arms that kept him safe from everything. So many times he'd woken up, the memories slipping away before he could catch them. It wasn't like that now; now he knew where those sensations came from, but he never forget it was at Osiris Red that they first stirred in his heart.

It was the taste of food that everyone else said was horrible, but he loved every scrap of it, and wished for more when he sat in class, bored out of his mind because Chronos-sensei was going on about Fusion again and what didn't he know about Fusion and he wanted to be in the Red dining area, the smell of polished wood in his nostrils, the feel of old wood under his fingers - sure, the wood oils weren't the rich kind that Ra Yellow or Obelisk Blue got, but it was good enough and everything that needed polishing or oiling got the treatment at least once a week.

If someone wanted better food than what was made in the Red lunchroom, they had two options: they could go to Tome-san and get something made, and deal with having to pay for it -Tome-san was a nice woman, but she needed to buy food before she could make food - or they could work to get promoted and start eating at Yellow or Blue.

Juudai didn't mind shelling out some extra to get Tome-san to make him something and she didn't always charge him anyway. Helping push her truck had given him a lot of brownie points.

Osiris Red was the sound of students talking to each other and the feel of never being alone, unless you wanted to be. The walls were thick enough to keep out the wind and the rain, but that didn't stop people from leaning out of their doors to shout at someone or to just yell until the person they wanted to talk to answered.

It was fingers tapping on a keyboard or on their Student PDAs, keeping them connected not just to the students in the other dorms, but in the rest of the world as well. It still existed and there were always ways to stay in touch with one's non-student friends and families.

Osiris Red was the scent of cooking in the air when someone - Juudai hadn't yet caught their name - got hit up with the desire to bake cupcakes and everyone in the dorm ended up with two by the time they were done. Juudai wanted to know who they were so he could say thank you but he never quite got the chance. When cupcakes came around, he focused on eating them, the taste of rich chocolate and frosting occupying his mind until they were no more.

Hot tea was another taste that meant Osiris Red to him, but it also meant Shou, since he made one amazing cup of hot tea. More than once he'd teased Shou that if being a professional duelist didn't work out for him, he could probably open up a teashop. Shou refused to even consider it. Juudai kind of approved of that. Shou would always be happier dueling anyway.

Osiris Red was knowing that he had people who knew the worst and the best of him and who weren't afraid of him. It didn't matter how long it had been since he'd seen some of them. They were friends nevertheless. From Hayato's fantastic artwork to Johan's warm fingers pressed against his own, they were his and he was theirs.

Even if he did screw it up sometimes. But he was getting better!

Osiris Red was the whipping kiss of the breeze and the grit of sand underneath his shoes, when he didn't toss them off and dig his toes in there to feel it against his skin. It was cool water brushing against him and warm water sliding by and the cheerful cry of Fubuki-san as he surfed the waves and waved back at everyone, whether or not they greeted him. Blue he might be, but he thought much as Juudai did on this subject, that duelists were duelists, no matter what.

Osiris Red was the feel of sunlight washing through the trees, the earth solid underneath his back, resting not that far from the building. It was sleeping in class and knowing he was going to get in trouble for it and doing it anyway.

Osiris Red would forever be good memories and bad, a mixture that Juudai treasured because they were his memories and he wouldn't give them up for anything. He'd learned more there than he'd ever learned in his classes. Not that he would tell Chronos-sensei that.

No matter how far he traveled - and he traveled far - Osiris Red remained a glowing spot in the back of his mind, a place he loved forever. While he belonged on the road, helping those he could in every world, Osiris Red remained his favorite home.

 **The End**

 **Note:** Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoyed the story. Please let me know what you thought of it if at all possible.


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